Program

Stars, Companions and their Interactions: A Memorial to Robert H. Koch

Note: The attached PDF at the bottom of this page is the conference booklet with the abstracts.

Wednesday, August 10

8:45 Welcome Corcoran, Holenstein

Session I. Interactions Chair: Ed Devinney

9:00 Ed Guinan: The Power of Eclipses: Impacts on the Development of Science - from Binary Stars, Exoplanets, and Cosmology

9:40 Ed Sion: Accreting White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Binaries

10:20 BREAK

10:50 Al Linnell: BINSYN, a program suite for analysis of binary stars with or without optically thick accretion disks

11:30 Mike Corcoran: Interactions in Massive Colliding Wind Binaries

11:50 Chris Russell: X-ray Modeling of Eta Carinae and WR140 from SPH Simulations

12:10 LUNCH

13:30 Stella Kafka: Interactive Binaries/CVs

14:00 Bruce Hrivnak: Do binaries shape planetary & proto-planetary nebulae?

Session II. Surveys Chair:Tony Hull

14:30 John Bochanski: Low Mass Binaries in the SDSS (INVITED)

15:00 Cullen Blake: Finding Low-Mass EBs in Synoptic Surveys (INVITED)

15:40 Terry Oswalt: Stellar Archeology - What White Dwarf Stars Tell Us about the History of the Galaxy (INVITED)

16:10 BREAK

Session III. Modelling Chair:Ed Guinan

16:40 Bob Wilson: Under-developed and Under-utilized Capabilities in EB Light Curve Modeling (INVITED)

17:20 Ed Devinney: Artificial Intelligence Applications in Eclipsing Binaries

17:50 Dave Bradstreet: Binary Star Research at Eastern University

18:20 ADJOURN

19:30 BANQUET

Presentation/Joanne Koch

Mathieu Ossendrijver: The Sky Over Babylon: Astronomy in the Ancient Near East

Thursday, August 11

Session IV. Evolution Chair Chair: Ed Sion

9:00 Peter Eggleton: Formation and Evolution of Contact Binaries(INVITED)

9:40 Howard Bond: Intermediate-Luminosity Red Transients: Evidence for Catastrophic Binary Mergers? (INVITED)

10:20 BREAK

10:35 Doug Leonard: Seeking the Binary Progenitor(s) of Type Ia Supernovae

11:05 Todd Hillwig: Using Planetary Nebula Central Stars to Study Close Binary Star Evolution

11:35 Phill Read: Mass Transfer and Eccentric Accretion Observed in a Neglected Interacting Binary Star

12:00 Group Photo and LUNCH (VU Astronomy Dept)

Session V. Geometry Chair: Bruce Hrivnak

13:30 John Wisniewski: Imaging Nearby Circumstellar Disks to Diagnose Young Exoplanets

14:00 Jamie Lomax: Constraining the Mass Loss Geometry of Beta Lyrae

14:20 Nick Elias: Full-Stokes Interferometric Imaging of Stars

14:50 Jason Sanborn/Bob Zavala: Optical Observations with Milliarcsecond Resolution of Stars, their Environments, and Companions

15:20 BREAK

Session VI. Extremes Chair:Nick Elias

15:40 Ron Kaitchuck: A Search for Exoplanets in Short-Period Binary Star Systems

16:20 Scott Engle: Cepheids

16:50 Larry DeWarf: The Alpha Cen System

17:20 Stan Owocki: Modeling Gamma-Ray Emission from High-Mass X-ray Binaries (INVITED)

18:00 ADJOURN

19:00 NOSTAGLIA DINNER: The Mixx

Friday August 12

9:00 Mitch Struble: Are the Einstein Crossing Times of Galactic Microlensing Events Bimodal?

Session VII. Instrumentation Chair: Mike Corcoran

9:30 Carol Ambruster+Tony Hull: Pierce-Blitzstein Dual Photometer

10:00 Bruce Holenstein+Rich Mitchell: Robert H. Koch's Work on Medium Aperture Mirrors

10:30 George Wolf+Bruce Holenstein: The Pennsylvania Polarimeters

11:00 BREAK

Session VIII. Memories of RHK Chair:Bruce Holenstein

11:20 Al Linnell: Amherst Days

11:50 Mitch Struble: RHK at Penn

12:10 Ken Lande: RHK at Penn

12:30 Jim Koch: RHK at Home

12:50 Ed Guinan: Closing Remarks

13:00 ADJOURN